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Speaker 1: Life Audio.

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Speaker 2: Welcome to the Crosswalk devotional. We're glad to have you

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Speaker 2: listening with us. Today's topic is about God as our Rock.

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Speaker 2: We'll return with the devotion after a brief message from

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Speaker 2: our sponsors. When you can't pull yourself together, written and

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Speaker 2: read by Sarah Fraser, Lead me to the Rock that

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Speaker 2: is higher than I Psalm sixty one two. No one

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Speaker 2: likes to admit they can't do something. In a world

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Speaker 2: filled with social media, fake news images and doctored photos,

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Speaker 2: who is really telling the truth about how hard life

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Speaker 2: can be? Yes, we have this sense of transparency from

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Speaker 2: some people online, but we know deep down we don't

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Speaker 2: have the full story. No one shows all of their

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Speaker 2: cares or reveals all of their struggles, sorrow and griefs.

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Speaker 2: Even if these people share their sorrow, there is little

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Speaker 2: hope for us who suffer silently. What if we can't

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Speaker 2: pull ourselves together? The place I have found to be

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Speaker 2: completely honest but also provide complete hope is the Book

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Speaker 2: of Psalms. In Psalm sixty one, we read an honest

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Speaker 2: prayer filled with heart wrenching troubles. But it doesn't end there. David,

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Speaker 2: the author gives us a path forward as New Testament believers,

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Speaker 2: we see the fulfillment of David its hope in the

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Speaker 2: life of Jesus. Psalm sixty one was written by King David,

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Speaker 2: who had his fair share of trouble. We don't know

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Speaker 2: the exact circumstances David faced with many of his psalms,

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Speaker 2: but I think that it is the point we have

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Speaker 2: this cry of David recorded in scripture for us to

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Speaker 2: use in any of our situations. David describes his heartache

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Speaker 2: in the second verse. He says his heart is faint.

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Speaker 2: The word means to be overwhelmed or covered. The very

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Speaker 2: core of David's life, his heart was deeply troubled. Maybe

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Speaker 2: you woke up this morning tired, weary, and overwhelmed with

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Speaker 2: the things going on in your life. We all face

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Speaker 2: burdens too big, sorrows too deep, and heartache that goes

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Speaker 2: beyond words. We think about the trials we are facing,

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Speaker 2: and maybe they feel like waves of the ocean. David

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Speaker 2: mentions a rock in the last part of verse two,

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Speaker 2: and this word is actually the word for cliff in

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Speaker 2: the image David is creating for us in Psalm sixty one,

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Speaker 2: we might see this trouble, this trial, this overwhelmed, feeling

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Speaker 2: as being caught in a storm or shipwrecked. Imagine swimming

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Speaker 2: in an ocean of grief, with the waves pounding down

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Speaker 2: on you relentlessly. Life can feel like that. Maybe it

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Speaker 2: is the same trial or various trials all happening at once.

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Speaker 2: A man who is shipwrecked is a hopeless man if

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Speaker 2: the waves are too high and the depths loom below,

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Speaker 2: no matter how strong he swims, sure is impossible to

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Speaker 2: get to. There are some things we face that we

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Speaker 2: cannot rescue ourselves out. And this is a situation David

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Speaker 2: describes here in Psalm sixty one. In the midst of

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Speaker 2: his flood of emotions, David asked God to bring him

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Speaker 2: to the rock that is higher than himself. It is

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Speaker 2: a cliff at the edge of an ocean. If you've

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Speaker 2: seen pictures or videos, you know that the ocean is

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Speaker 2: rarely calm beside those types of rocks, and we all

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Speaker 2: know cliffs are not easily climbed. David recognizes that he

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Speaker 2: cannot rescue himself. You and I must come to the

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Speaker 2: point where we stop trying to deliver ourselves from the

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Speaker 2: trial and cry out to God. Four times David mentions

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Speaker 2: crying out to God. In Psalm sixty one. This crying

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Speaker 2: out to God is prayer. He begs God for help,

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Speaker 2: not because he has waited and now prayer is the

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Speaker 2: last resort. But he says this is too big, too hard.

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Speaker 2: He says that his only hope is God. He does

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Speaker 2: this because in Psalm sixty one to three, David says,

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Speaker 2: for you have been my refuge, a strong tower against

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Speaker 2: the foe. The waters were rising, but David looked up.

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Speaker 2: He remembered what God had done and believed God could

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Speaker 2: save him. You and I might be facing a storm

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Speaker 2: so big that we wonder if God really can rescue us.

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Speaker 2: Maybe the trial you are facing is the first of

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Speaker 2: its kind. You haven't needed God like this before. How

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Speaker 2: can you look back and have confidence? Take David's take mine.

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Speaker 2: I have walked through many storms and through many valleys.

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Speaker 2: Never once has God left or stopped working. God will

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Speaker 2: be a refuge and strong tower. God will lead you

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Speaker 2: to the rock that is too far and too high

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Speaker 2: for you to reach on your own. This rock is Jesus,

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Speaker 2: our hope, our defense, our strong tower. The disciples in

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Speaker 2: Matthew fourteen, Verses twenty two through thirty four faced the

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Speaker 2: literal waves of the sea. They were physically in a storm,

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Speaker 2: about to die. Jesus comes out to them walking on water.

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Speaker 2: Peter asks to join Jesus and jumps out of the boat.

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Speaker 2: Looking at Jesus, Peter begins to walk on water as well.

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Speaker 2: The waves and the wind drive Peter's gaze from Jesus

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Speaker 2: to the storm. It is then Peter begins to sink.

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Speaker 2: Jesus reaches down and saves him. You and I will

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Speaker 2: face storms too big, powerful, and amazingly hard. When our

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Speaker 2: eyes are focused on Jesus, we find the rock on

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Speaker 2: which to cling to. The waves might still crash and

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Speaker 2: the storm rage, but we can find rest in Jesus.

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Speaker 2: Let us even now reach out in our hearts and

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Speaker 2: ask God to save us, intersecting faith and life. The

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Speaker 2: storm might still be beating you down, but can you

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Speaker 2: remember you are safe in God's hands. Jesus doesn't ask

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Speaker 2: you to pull yourself together. He invites you to come

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Speaker 2: cry out to him and know you will be held.

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Speaker 2: How might you stop striving and be still before God?

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Speaker 2: How does knowing He is with you in the storm

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Speaker 2: and is more powerful than any waves comfort your heart?

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Speaker 2: Reading Psalm eighteen one through three, Isaiah forty twenty eight

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Speaker 2: through thirty one, Matthew eleven twenty eight through thirty second,

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Speaker 2: Corinthians twelve nine through ten, Hebrews six, eighteen and nineteen.

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